Matt Trowbridge: Bears' many flaws all tied to the quarterback

Tuesday

The Bears may switch quarterbacks, but they won’t pin Sunday’s 34-10 loss to Dallas on Rex Grossman.

The Bears may switch quarterbacks, but they won’t pin Sunday’s 34-10 loss to Dallas on Rex Grossman.

“It was a team effort,” coach Lovie Smith said at Halas Hall on Monday. “Starting with me. Offense. Defense. Special teams. That’s the way we win football games, and that’s definitely the way we lost the game.”

No, Sunday wasn’t a shining moment for anyone who didn’t wear a star on his helmet. Cedric Benson lost another fumble. Bernard Berrian dropped three passes. Devin Hester muffed two kicks and fumbled on a third return. The defense gave up 329 yards passing.

Yet everyone wants to talk about the quarterback with the 45.2 passer rating and a league-leading six interceptions.

So why the fascination with Rex? Well, it’s not just because Smith hinted Grossman may be replaced this week by backup Brian Griese. It’s because a quarterback is the hub that touches every spoke of a team.

Sunday’s game showed that vividly, with the Cowboys’ Tony Romo rallying his team to victory while the Bears imploded around Grossman. And it showed in the pointed comments of NBC broadcasters John Madden and Al Michaels.

Sunday night, Lovie, after one of his knee-jerk “Rex is our quarterback” statements, said he’d need to see the video before he made any further evaluation. Well, watching video also works for columnists. Here’s a second take on Chicago’s struggling quarterback after seeing him twice in one day, once live and then on tape being dissected by Al and John:

Madden said it’s not enough for a quarterback to just not make mistakes. He also has to make plays for his team to win. That was his argument against Griese, but it also damned Grossman. In his past 13 starts, counting the playoffs, Rex has passed for more than 200 yards twice. That’s virtually the same rate as Kyle Orton, who was demoted to third string despite a 10-5 record after topping 200 yards twice in 15 games two years ago.

The Bears have scored two touchdowns in 38 possessions with Grossman at quarterback this year. The Bears held a team averaging 41 points to 3 at halftime, but the defense wore down with no help from the offense. Remember, the 1985 Bears had Walter Payton and Jim McMahon to keep the defense fresh. “Our defense has done a lot of good things around here,” Smith said, “but we’ve got to work on the offensive side, too. We haven’t so far this year.”

The Bears have the oldest offensive line in football. Stellar the past two seasons, it has looked old this year. But the Bears actually blocked better than the Cowboys. The difference was Romo escaped trouble and Grossman didn’t. “To play, Rex Grossman almost has to have perfect pass protection,” Madden said. “A free rusher on Grossman gets him. A free rusher on Romo, you are still playing football.”

It’s hard to keep running when you can’t complete an occasional third-down pass. Grossman is the worst-rated third-down passer in the league. He’s scrambled or passed for a first down on only nine of Chicago’s 65 third-down pass plays of at least 5 yards the last nine games. “The running game allows you to get in a position to hit some passes,” Smith said. “Then you’ve got to make them pay.”

The Bears didn’t make Dallas pay, Smith said, in part because Bernard Berrian dropped three passes. But all his drops were on first down. Terrell Owens dropped several of Romo’s passes, too. Patrick Crayton dropped a perfect third-down pass from Romo in the end zone. And a slew of early penalties meant Romo needed to gain 19, 15, 20, 10, 18, 4 and 20 yards on his first seven third-down tries. Romo found a way to make up for those mistakes. Grossman, who had two downs remaining every time his receivers goofed up, didn’t.

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner has taken heat for three consecutive unimaginative game plans. But Turner does that because Rex scares the Bears. It’s hard to be daring on third-and-long when Rex can’t even get it right on the easy passing downs.
His first interception Sunday came on second-and-6 and his last two on first-and-10.
Dallas has no such concerns with Romo. Seconds before Romo threw 35 yards to Owens from his own 8-yard line, Madden said: “Tony Romo is not a quarterback who is afraid of third-and-11. The Cowboys can be successful in this situation.”

The unstated implication? Rex Grossman is NOT a quarterback you can trust on third-and-11.

Just like they didn’t trust Kyle Orton two years ago. As soon as the Bears switched quarterbacks, Turner started calling far more, and more daring, passing plays with Grossman.

Maybe he’ll do the same with Griese. And maybe the sacks will go down, time of possession up and the defense will be better rested. Or maybe nothing will change. But the only way to find out whether the whole team has gone horribly wrong, or just the quarterback, is to plug in a new quarterback.

Assistant sports editor Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.